White-Springer honored by Equine Science Society
July 13th, 2021
Josie Coverdale Award for Outstanding Young Professional
This award recognizes an individual under the age of 40 with less than 10 years of service in academia or industry, who has made meritorious contributions to equine science in teaching, research, public service, or industry. In 2017, this award was renamed in memory of Josie A. Coverdale.
2021 Recipient: Sarah White
Dr. Sarah H. White earned her M.S. (2010) and Ph.D. (2014) in Animal Sciences with dual emphasis in equine nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Florida. She secured a prestigious postdoctoral position (2014-2016) in the College of Health Sciences and Center for Muscle Biology at the University of Kentucky where she studied the role of muscle satellite cells on muscle growth and repair in humans and mice. In 2016 Dr. White joined the faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University, where she has developed a balanced program that addresses equine research, teaching and stakeholder needs across the tripartite mission. She has established a research program focusing on nutritional and training modulation of skeletal muscle metabolism and mitochondrial function in young horses. Additionally, she has fostered collaborations with other scientists to study muscle biology and energetics in beef cattle, swine and aging humans. Dr. White is a rising star in the field of equine exercise physiology whose programmatic efforts are gaining notoriety for excellence in research, as evinced by national and international presentations, recruitment of horse industry collaborators, and funding support of over $2.7 million. She has authored or co-authored 18 refereed journal articles in top-tier journals, including a first-author paper published in Skeletal Muscle (in the top 10% of all cited papers in 2018) and several in Scientific Reports. She has mentored 5 M.S. and 1 Ph.D. students and serves as the primary instructor for 4 courses. Dr. White is also an accomplished horsewoman, earning many Arabian sport horse honors in dressage.